Caught on camera: UT professor acting "unbalanced" tasered and arrested by APD

The arrest of what appears to be an assistant UT professor by an Austin Police Officer was caught on camera, the woman who took the video said the man appeared to be “unbalanced.”

Victoria Watson works in the Hyde Park area and said Tuesday morning she saw an APD officer and a man at a bus stop across the street and something didn't seem right. “I didn't feel good about the situation, so I started recording. From my side of it, I didn't see the person doing anything aggressive or violent, so I was just really concerned,” she said. She started taking video in which you hear her state “It looks like he has a mental imbalance.”

The man APD identified as 35-year-old Nedialko Dimitrov. In the beginning of the video Dimitrov is seen side stepping or dancing, apparently waiting for the bus but when the bus arrives, Dimitrov walks toward it and that’s when things escalated,  “Everything was okay until the officer interrupted his routine, by not letting him get on this bus,” Watson said. In the video, you hear a snap and then see Dimitrov on the ground, he then begins questioning the officer asking over and over if he was under arrest.

Watson said a woman in a jeep parked outside said she had earlier called to report Dimitrov, because she felt threatened by his behavior. “She had had an interaction with the person at the bus stop and he was saying things that were inappropriate and was also giving people the middle finger,” Watson said.

According to the University of Texas website, Dimitrov is an assistant professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department. On his website, he said "My research is in network modeling and optimization with applications to disease control and security.  Specifically, my research deals with identifying valuable information for decision making."

The video has gone viral and Watson said she hopes something comes from her sharing it. “This young man was seriously unbalanced, you could see that just from his behavior, but the officer didn't know how to respond to that. It would be nice to see a lesson learned, and maybe even have different policies in play, so situations like this don't occur and no one else is affected,” she said.
               

APD said Dimitrov was arrested and charged with public intoxication, evading detention, and resisting arrest.  He was taken to the hospital, but refused treatment and was then taken to the Travis County Jail.

The Austin Police Department released this statement regarding the incident. “The Austin Police Department is aware of the video. As is standard protocol, the chain of command will review the report and all videos to determine if any policy violations occurred. Thank you for your patience as we work through this process. “